@Welverin: exactly. linear games kick open-world games' butt in terms of tension and gameplay. i always prefer a linear game over an open-world game, it's just a better quality in my opinion.
the last real open-world games i played were Witcher Wild Hunt and Horizon and while both were good, tension in these games fades quickly and is only apparant in certain missions. and they both have very tedious elements like worthless collectibles. those games also have very little replayability, because once you restart you get that feeling of "i have to do all that again? no thanks". i knew before buying Horizon that it is probably not for me, yet i had vacation time and one week before Hellblade was released :)
@godfather830: Don't think too much of it. I still think Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City is a good game and has the best depiction of a zombie horde in any Resident Evil game. The game was trashed by pretty much everyone, but that never stopped me from enjoying it. I also very much liked Resident Evil 6 (also trashed), whereas Mass Effect 2 (highly praised) bored me to death and had a pretty bad story, considering it was an rpg. Everyone should just enjoy what they like.
@CyberEarth: "It's German, BUT it's extremely good?!" HOW DARE YOU?!?! Hehe, i'm just kidding, you probably mean "it's not in English, but it's extremely good". Also i second that, awesome series!
hell yeah, i'm ready for some new mindf%#k á la Black Mirror. i still can't shake the ending of shut up and dance. the episode started so mediocre, like you've seen that stuff a thousand times before (people get hacked and blackmailed) and then the ending, oh man,... so unexpected.
Yeah guys, sure, he announced not making any Dark Souls games anymore, so instead he's making a Demon's Souls, which has the exact same gameplay and setting.
I totally love the Souls gameplay, but it has to have at least a new setting, like Bloodborne had. They could try a Japanese setting. I know we already have Nioh, but a Asia Souls would of course have a lot more weapons, a lot more different enemy types and most of all an interconnected world. Space Souls would also be cool. What it desperately needs is something "fresh". DS3 tried some new stuff with sidequests where you get summoned by NPCs, which was really cool, but even though it was something new it still felt old, because it still worked through the good old summon signs and it still had the same basic Souls setting. We still have estocs and daggers and zweihänders and we've played with them for 4 games now. Bloodborne was just what the formula needed. Some stuff didn't work well (Boss drops were disappointing, especially on ng+, which made the fights feel less rewarding, which also made for less playability and the bell system just didn't work well with randoms, because the game gave you no clue if there was actually anyone willing to help you).
Hell, even a modern setting could probably still be awesome with the core gameplay.
@merwanor: whoa really? tastes differ of course. i'm into dark-toned gameplay-heavy games and as someone who also doesn't care about Zelda (never played any) i thought this was very much the greatest year since the arrival of the PS4, which, to be honest, isn't that long, yet this year had an amount of interesting games that surpassed all the years since launch combined.
It's hard to say what my favourite one was this year. Spontaneously i'd say the Evil Within 2, but it's also the most recent so it might have an unfair advantage over the others. Hellblade was great. Prey was great. I bought Horizon while waiting for Hellblade in the summer and it was good for a playthrough as well, though definitely not my favourite this year.
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